Again

Another song worm in my brain the other morning, about singing and dancing in the streets. A cover version of it, no less. And the subject matter bothered me as much as the tune turning and turning and turning. I have long suspected that songs about singing were redundant at the very least.

"What is this song about?"

"Dunno. Ah, put down words about singing it. Yeah, that'll do."

Might as well just make it instrumental, or fa, la, la, la, rah. Not that it's bad, exactly. No doubt a tool to get past writer's block, write about anything, what you are doing right then, just to get moving.

It always feels like a placeholder to me, "Your Photo Here" or Lorem Ipsum. According to one resident I worked with, Oye Como Va is much the same, listen to us, we're a great band. Although there may be a bit more of a joke that doesn't translate well. Doesn't invalidate the music, or a great performance, but when the lyrics wax lyrical about the lyrics, it gets it's knickers in a knot. As it were.

Novels about writers writing novels. Poems about poetry. Movies about making movies. Plays about putting on plays. A movie about a play about producing a play - Noises Off comes to mind. On stage, it was amusing, the movie lumbered about in misery. Having taken a Self-reflexive Cinema course, I notice self referential movies acutely.

Even painters painting themselves painting. Actually, those can be rather clever, like Diego Velasquez



or Norman Rockwell,



who are conscious of the distancing. There is humor intended. Still, self portraiture in art is rarely considered the best work. The huge paintings of rooms of paintings, however clever, are also, ultimately, unimaginative. Etudes can be lovely. Scales do not a symphony make. It all gets very recursive.

Creating about the process is a useful tool. Only a master can turn it so completely inside out it can become art again.

Bad? Not necessarily. Useful exercise for the artist? Sure. Really imaginative and creative? A vanishing rarity. Mostly, no.

Got any other examples of ridiculous redundancy? Or when it is handled so well it becomes illuminating?




Speaking of rant. Found several new-to-me bloggers, who use Embedded below post comments. And although I've left my notes a few times, I will not continue. Anyone who makes it that difficult to comment should just shut the comments off completely.